New World Order: More Depth, Better Graphics in Battle for Wesnoth 1.6

A Goblin Spearman can now be weak, slow or dim, but Wesnoth has seasons and Walking Corpses cost you more in the battle to reclaim the throne to the mythical land.

The popular strategy game Battle for Wesnoth is now available in version 1.6. A new mainline campaign called the Legend of Wesmere was added to spotlight many of the newly integrated features. Key among them is the ability for armies of connected gamers to exchange commands.

The gold standard has also changed so that the carry-over value from scenario to scenario is now 40% instead of 80%, although it's added to the scenario's starting gold value instead of replacing it if higher, as in older versions of the game.

Wesnoth now looks better graphically with a bunch of new terrains. Forests change with the seasons and villages show more detail. More units are fully animated and portraits keep a consistent line of characterization. The new coastal reef terrain gives defense distinctions to land and water units. Warriors can recuperate in human cities or primitive tribal villages.

Storyline prose and transitions were improved and campaigns are now part of the Wesnoth history timeline. The geography has more depth and detail to give the adventure greater authenticity and player immersion into the fantasy universe.

Multiplayer mode is through a Wesnoth forum account. Even here a number of small changes were made: the Goblin Spearman now costs nine instead of eight gold pieces, but his movement was increased from four to five fields. Goblins now have only one trait, weak, slow or dim, instead of the previous two -- that's evolution. Walking Corpses have also undergone some inflationin that they cost eight gold pieces instead of seven. Bowman have lost some value, however, and now cost 14 instead of 15 gold pieces, but their melee attack value was decreased proportionally from 6-2 to 4-2.

Thanks to Google's Summer of Code, the game's map editor was improved, among other enhancements announced in the release notes. Battle for Wesnoth is available under GPL on most platforms here. Many additional distros will probably have packages fairly soon.

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